A26892:2194
A Christian Directory
A Christian directory, or, A sum of practical theology and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortify every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.A Christian directory, or, A summ of practical theologie and cases of conscience directing Christians how to use their knowledge and faith, how to improve all helps and means, and to perform all duties, how to overcome temptations, and to escape or mortifie every sin : in four parts ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by Robert White for Nevill Simmons, 1673
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Part 1 › Chapter 5 › The Directions contemplative for Redeeming Time.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
§. 15. Direct. 8. Remember the swift and constant motion of your neglected Time. What hast it1 makes! And never stays! That which was here while you spake the last word, is gone before you can speak the next. Whatever you are doing, or saying, or thinking of, its passing on without delay. It stayeth not while you sleep! Whether you remember and observe it and make use of it, or not, it glides away! It stayeth not your leisure. It hasteth as fast while you play as while you work; while you sin, as when you repent. No Monarch so potent as to command it a moment to attend his will! We have no more Joshuas to stop the Sun: It is above the jurisdiction of the Princes of the earth! It will not hear them if they command or request it to delay its hast, but the smallest moment! Crowns and Kingdoms would be no price, to hi•e it to loiter but while you draw another breath. Your lives are not like the clothes of the Israelites in the wilderness, that wax not old: But like the provisions of the Gibeonites, worn and wasted while you are passing but a little way. And is Time so swift, and you so slow? Will you stand still and see it pass away, as if you had no use for it; no work to do, nor no account to give?
§. 15. Direct. 8. Remember the swift and constant motion of your neglected Time. What hast it1 makes! And never stays! That which was here while you spake the last word, is gone before you can speak the next. Whatever you are doing, or saying, or thinking of, its passing on without delay. It stayeth not while you sleep! Whether you remember and observe it and make use of it, or not, it glides away! It stayeth not your leisure. It hasteth as fast while you play as while you work; while you sin, as when you repent. No Monarch so potent as to command it a moment to attend his will! We have no more Ioshuas to stop the Sun: It is above the jurisdiction of the Princes of the earth! It will not hear them if they command or request it to delay its hast, but the smallest moment! Crowns and Kingdoms would be no price, to hi•e it to loiter but while you draw another breath. Your lives are not like the cloaths of the Israelites in the wilderness, that wax not old: But like the provisions of the Gibeonites, worn and wasted while you are passing but a little way. And is Time so swift, and you so slow? Will you stand still and see it pass away, as if you had no use for it; no work to do, nor no account to give?